


Three Months

by like_lions



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Angst with a Happy Ending, Family Feels, Feels, Gen, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Immortality, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Near Death Experiences, Other, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/like_lions/pseuds/like_lions
Summary: Klaus Hargreeves just died. His siblings just found out. They're in mourning. One little complication: he's immortal.Or: Klaus dies and his family mourns his loss. Meanwhile he gets to say goodbye to Ben in the afterlife.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Everyone, Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Comments: 5
Kudos: 303





	Three Months

_I don't know_  
_This could break my heart or save me_  
_Nothing's real, until you let go completely_  
_So here I go with all my thoughts I've been saving_  
_So here I go with all my fears weighing on me_

It’s been said that the most dangerous time for a drug addict is when they relapse, because they return to their old fix and old dose forgetting that they no longer have a tolerance for it. What used to give you a nice buzz or a comfortable high now takes you out and makes you a statistic. Another drug-induced death in America. Another dead body in a motel room.

All of that’s been said before, but frankly, Klaus wasn’t listening. When he ripped open that plastic bag, tucked away in his pocket for safekeeping, he wasn’t thinking about pacing himself or taking it slow. Why would he take it easy? He felt like shit, his siblings were off strategizing ways to “take down” the Sparrow Academy, Ben was dead, and Klaus was tired. He just wanted a hit, a buzz, a high that would make him forget his life was a complete shitshow. One bad turn to another. So when he shot up that night he wasn’t thinking about that old sage advice from drug addicts past. He just thought about the feeling of the needle in his arm and the cold tile under his head.

—

It was bright, white, and gloomy. Was this a hospital? A psych ward? Or…shit.

There was God, or at least his embodiment, in the form of a pissed off little girl with pigtails on a bike. She rolled her eyes at him as he approached with an energy saying, “Not this again.”

“You couldn’t wait to come back, huh?”

Klaus blinked slowly, still coming back from a high that took him to astronomical levels before stopping his heart entirely. “I guess not.”

“This is so boring,” she said. “Don’t you get tired of fucking up all the time?”

He thought it over and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re God, right? You should know.”

She turned on her bike and rode away, Klaus calling after her. “Hey! What am I supposed to be doing here?”

The girl kept on, screaming back, “You figure it out, asshole!”

—

It had been a few days since they last heard from Klaus. They figured he was probably locked up somewhere or strung out on some street corner - that was pretty much his MO. Ever since they returned from 1963 he had been going through it. They knew that Ben was important to him, he was important to all of them, but they weren’t expecting he would take his moving on so hard. After all, he had been dead for seventeen years already at that point. So when they confronted him about his apathy and depression re: the Sparrow Academy, they came at him with too much aggression and he stormed out in a typical Klaus fashion. Avoid, self-soothe, repeat. But he’d never been gone this long before.

“We need to go check on him,” Allison told the group. “What if he’s hurt out there and needs our help?”

“He’s a big boy, he’ll figure it out,” Diego said callously.

“C’mon guys, maybe Allison’s right…” Vanya said, meekly. She didn’t want to overstep, especially not after nearly causing the end of the world. Twice. “He would come looking for us.”

“If he wasn’t high out of his mind,” Five said, raising his eyebrows.

Luther groaned, knowing it was ultimately going to come down to him. Without Klaus there, he was the tiebreaker between the remaining five siblings.

“If we were going to look for Klaus,” he said. “And I’m not saying we are - where would we start?”

Allison got up from her seat and grabbed her phone. “I’m gonna check hospitals…and maybe the city jail.”

“You should try morgues,” Diego said, with a laugh. He was joking, but he had gotten used to poking fun at Klaus’ expense. He was an easy target after all. “Maybe he took his communicating with the dead to a new level.”

Allison shot him a glare. She was in Klaus’ corner when he first spiraled out, back when she checked him into a rehab in Los Angeles. She couldn’t count the number of nights he spent lying on her couch or sleeping it off in the backyard. So when Allison was concerned about Klaus, she was really concerned. He was an ass sometimes, but he was still her brother.

Vanya helped rally Five and Diego, and they started ruling out places. Hospitals, morgues, jails, hotels…

“Would he go to a hotel?” Vanya asked.

“He doesn’t have hotel money,” Five said. “Check motels, under $50 a night’ll do it.”

A Google search narrowed it down to three options in the area. After ruling out the first two, they came to the Motel 6 off the highway. The front desk guy barely looked up from his phone before pointing them to room 205 and handing them the spare key. This wasn’t exactly a top tier establishment.

Death has a smell. They first smelled it when they arrived, but they assumed it was coming from somewhere else. They were, of course, wrong.

—

Klaus walked down the road that felt endless. His knees buckled beneath him as he cried out, “Just kill me already!” It was as if his voice echoed around him. He would have expected to feel different, lonelier and more afraid. He felt nearly the same way he felt since Ben died - empty and aimless drifting through the world.

He picked up a rock from the side of the road and through it at the sky as hard as he could. “Oh fuck you, God! Why can’t you just let me die!”

Footsteps approached him from behind.

“You can’t kill what’s already dead.”

The familiar voice calmed the tension in his shoulders.

“Ben?”

—

Key in the keyhole, door swung open, smell rushing forward. The sweet smell of death that harkens in your worst nightmare. From the smell alone they were all thinking the same thing, but they couldn’t accept it. Not until they saw it with their own eyes. This depressing, gloomy motel room with thirty year old sheets and no cable couldn’t be his final resting place. It was too much, even for Klaus.

Luther was the first to step into the bathroom. Allison could tell from the way he flinched and tensed up that it was him. She tried to push past him and see for herself, but Luther grabbed her, blocking her way.

“You don’t want to see him like this,” he said, his voice thick and gruff like he was trying to put on a brave face. “You don’t want to remember him like that.”

As Luther fought back Allison, Diego snuck past and stood stunned in the doorway.

“Holy shit.”

Five joined him and for the first time in his life, he was speechless. It shouldn’t have been a surprise for them - after all, they made jokes about their junkie brother all the time. But he had been doing so much better in the sixties, he got clean and was looking happy. And then he started drinking again and Ben died and they all got overwhelmed with the Sparrow Academy and…everything fell through the cracks. He fell through the cracks.

Vanya walked over slowly, closing her eyes and bracing herself. She was trying to control her emotions and make sure she didn’t blow up the world again. When she looked at that pale green bathroom floor, though, the only world that crashed around her was her own.

—

“Ben? What are you doing here?”

“I’m dead, Klaus,” he replied. “And apparently, so are you.”

Klaus stammered, stumbling back to his feet. “I haven’t seen you in…it’s been a lo—, I didn’t get to…” He fought back tears, trying not to let him show how much he missed him, but it was a hopeless task. And he didn’t have to of course, because Ben already knew.

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Ben said with a smile. For the first time in forever, he was wearing different clothes. He looked content, happy even. For a moment Klaus felt a pang of guilt for keeping him from that peace all those years. Even if he said he didn’t stick around for him, he still felt like he held him back.

“I’m sorry,” he said. It was all he could get out without breaking. “I’m…sorry.”

Ben smiled at him and the tears started to fall, Klaus wiping them away forcefully, trying to play it cool. Then out of nowhere, he felt Ben’s arms around him - really around him. He hadn’t felt it in so long. It was as if none of the life they left behind mattered. Time didn’t matter. They had each other and for once they were able to be honest - really honest - with each other.

Sometimes a hug goes on for too long and you know it - you just sense it in your soul. But in times like this its called for, and Klaus was too afraid to let go. He was afraid that if he let go, he would lose him again.

—

When Allison was a kid, Klaus was her best friend. It might not have shown much when they grew up, but he was the one she felt she could talk to. When she would fight with Luther or have issues with dad, Klaus always understood. He would sit and listen to her for hours as she would talk about her problems, and he never told her to stop or asked her to leave him alone. He was there for her. She wished she had done the same.

When she was able to break the grip Luther had around her and saw him lying there, eyes open, face up lying on the cold tile, she felt an instinctual need to grab him. She wanted to wrap him up in her arms and never let go. He looked cold and she hoped he wasn’t. His mouth was dirtied from vomit and she wanted to wipe it away. His eyes were bloodshot and she hoped he didn’t suffer.

It was as if they were all frozen in time. No one wanted to move, because moving would make it real. So when Allison walked into the bathroom and put Klaus’ hand in hers, it took everything in Diego not to stop her. Her face with streams of tears flowing silently down as she felt her brother’s cold touch. She nearly choked, barely breathing.

“Allison, you don’t have to—“ Diego tried to move her away from the…body, but he wasn’t able to grab hold of her.

“Don’t,” she replied. “Don’t touch me.”

“Is he…” Vanya asked quietly.

“What do you think Vanya?” Five asked sarcastically. “Yeah, Klaus is just taking a little open-eyed nap. He’s dead, Vanya. Dead.”

Luther tensed up. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“I’ll talk to her however I want to talk to her,” Five replied. “No use sugarcoating it. Dead is dead is dead.”

“Shut your mouth,” Diego said, putting himself in Five’s face.

“What are you gonna do about it, knife boy?” He replied. “Kill me?”

“Shut up!” Allison screamed.

She wanted to yell at them, tell them that they were being disrespectful, tell them that it was stupid fights like this that led to this in the first place, that they needed to stick together. She wanted to say all of that, but she knew if she opened her mouth again all that would come out were sobs.

—

“So what happens now?” Klaus asked his brother. The surroundings changed from the middle of the road to his childhood bedroom, the one he shared with Ben when they were nine. It was bright and familiar, full of action figures and drawings from their favorite shows. They loved to pretend like they were superheroes, jumping around, fighting crime, saving people. It was fun in theory, at least until Reginald made it their everyday reality.

Ben picked up a robot toy from the floor, tinkering with it. “That’s up to you. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s really true.”

“I’ve been here before, brotato,” Klaus replied. “I know I can’t die.”

Ben shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I guess it’s just up to you how to want to proceed.”

“Why are you speaking in riddles? Did that little girl on the bike put you up to this?”

Ben sighed. “If you stopped being a know-it-all for one minute, maybe I could tell you.”

Klaus sat down on the floor and picked at his fingernails like he did when he was a kid and was ignoring one of his father’s lectures. “Okay, fine. Go on then.”

“Do you want to go back and be the same old Klaus, or do you want to be better?”

“Is that a trick question?”

“No, it’s a real question,” Ben said. “If you’re immortal, you get a chance nobody else gets. You can decide how you want to do things over. How you want to treat people.”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “Sorry to break it to you Benerino, but the people around me aren’t exactly in love with me. That doesn’t change no matter what I do, so why should I care?”

“You’re wrong, you know.”

“About what? Something is gonna change if I take the blue pill?”

“No, asshole,” Ben replied snarkily. “They do love you.”

Klaus laughed. “Okay, sure,” he said. “I doubt they’re even thinking about me right now.”

“Okay…maybe I could just show you.”

“What the hell does that mean? Again with the riddles…”

—

Diego had always been hard on Klaus because he was jealous of him. At least when they were kids. He was Number 2, but dad always preferred Klaus. He always thought he had more potential for greatness. One thing Reginald Hargreeves always said about Klaus was that he wasn’t living up to his real potential. The only thing he ever said about Diego was that he was a hard worker and had strong moral character. Not exactly a sparkling review of his talent or abilities.

He was also hard on him because he could handle it, and when life felt unfair and he needed someone to blame, Klaus was an easy target. He would laugh off anything anyone said about him. He was resilient in that way. Sure he used drugs and had vices, but he never let it break him. At least not until now.

Looking at Klaus now, his eyes bolted open, it felt like he was looking directly at him. Begging him to answer for his sins. Why did you let me down, Diego? Why did you leave me here like this, Diego?

He wiped a tear from his eye, rogue evidence of the pain beneath the surface. “Shou—should we call someone?” His stutter began to betray him and he clammed up. That was one thing about Klaus he had always admired - he wasn’t afraid to show his emotions and let people in. He never gave him enough credit for it, and now he never could.

“When do you think…when do you think it happened?” Luther asked to no one in particular.

“What kind of question is that?” Allison asked.

“I just…”

“He’s wondering if he died recently, because if he did then it means that we could have saved him and we didn’t,” Five answered for him.

Diego flinched and faced Five. “H-h-how could you be so fucking cold about this?”

Five paused. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his family or the people he had lost. It was just that he had lost so many people throughout his life that he wasn’t capable of mourning anymore.

“If I cried over every…” he answered. “If I cried over every person I loved that died I would never stop. So I pick myself up and move on. What else do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,” Diego said. “Show a little bit of c-c-compassion. Fuck.”

“Do you think this is easy for me?” Five asked.

“It’s not easy for any of us,” Vanya said.

“I was supposed to take care of us,” Luther said quietly. “I was supposed to take care of him and I didn’t.”

“We were all supposed to take care of each other,” Five responded.

“Yeah, and we really fucked that up,” Vanya said. Allison stroked Klaus’ hair, still long from the sixties, as Vanya approached and handed her a towel to wipe his face.

“We should get him…together,” Allison said. “He wouldn’t want to be seen like this.”

“Especially not if there are any hot firefighters or paramedics,” Vanya said, nearly cracking a smile. Out of nowhere, Diego laughed and it was as if it was contagious. All of them started to chuckle until the laughter turned into tears and tears turned into sobs.

“This can’t be the end,” Allison whispered into Klaus’ ear. “You can’t go.”

—

“They’re crying? Over me?” Klaus asked. “Are you sure Betty White didn’t just die or something?”

“Yes, they’re crying over you, idiot,” Ben replied.

Klaus paused. “I didn’t think they…I didn’t think they cared that much.”

Ben took a deep breath and replied, “That’s the thing about this family. We’re fucked up and dysfunctional in every way possible, but we do love each other. That never changes, even if you are an asshole sometimes.”

Klaus cracked a smile.

“So what happens now?” He asked again.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” Ben replied.

Klaus stood up and hesitated. “I’m never going to see you again, am I?”

Ben cracked a small smile. “I’ll always be around. And you’re immortal, right? So you could do this again - but don’t. God is not happy with you.”

They laughed together and Klaus reached out and pulled Ben into a hug one last time.

“I love you, you know that?” He asked his brother.

“I know. I love you too,” Ben replied.

—

They cleaned up Klaus’ face and hair and readied themselves for calling 911. They already knew he was dead, but calling made it feel too real.

Allison reached down and kissed his head one last time before they arrived. For a moment, it was as if she could feel him growing warm under her touch.

As she stroked his face, she saw a flicker under his recently closed eyelids. “Oh my god,” she said.

“What?” Vanya asked.

“I think he…I think he’s alive.”

“What?” Everyone rushed forward and looked closer at him.

“You checked his pulse didn’t you?” Five asked.

“Of course I checked his pulse, I’m not an idiot,” she replied.

“He was dead, this place stunk to high heaven, he was dead,” Diego said, stammering.

“He was cold,” Vanya said.

“I must just be seeing things,” Allison rationalized to herself.

Suddenly his eyes fluttered again before flying open, a deep breath rushing out of his lungs as he lurched forward. Everyone screamed like a zombie was coming to life in front of them.

“Holy shit!” Someone shouted.

Klaus tried to catch his breath. It felt like he had just run a mile in six minutes. His skin was sweaty and his hands were clammy, like he had just exhausted himself crawling back from the afterlife.

“Holy shit is right,” Klaus said breathlessly. He coughed, his throat sore and dry.

“Did I forget to tell you guys that I was immortal?” He said jokingly. They all looked at him, shock keeping them from speaking. “Can I get some water? I’m a bit parched.”

Klaus was half expecting Allison to smack him, her eyes were so red and tearstained. Then out of nowhere, he felt the familiar feeling of being embraced, and for the second time that day he felt his sibling hugging him like their life depended on it. Or rather, like his life depended on it.

It wasn’t the first or last time Klaus died and came back to life, but it was the most important time. It was the day that he learned how much he meant to the people that mattered most to him, and more importantly, the day they were reminded of the same thing.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I really liked writing it. Let me know if you have any thoughts! The title and lyrics at the beginning of the song come from "Sober" by Kelly Clarkson.


End file.
